Don't forget the BS

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I'm not going to argue whether RN's should be diploma, 2 year, or 4 year, but what I have a complaint about is that for those of us with a BS with a major in nursing get left out of the loop. Many times we are just given the title BSN because we have the 4 year degree, but in fact, these two are slightly different.

I have seen my name with someone else adding the title BSN and it really aggravates me! :angryfire

Anyhow...my understanding of the difference is that the BS with a major in nursing is a 4 year degree awarded by the university/college, not a college within the university system, and therefore requires a few more credits for graduation. The BSN is awarded to students who attended a College of Nursing school within a university. In other words, its a separate division within the school that has different graduation requirements, albeit not much different than other divisions within the university but different none the less.

Am I alone on this one?

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I'll be honest, I have never seen a program at a college (and I have been researching alot) where one would have a Bachelor of Science with a Nursing major is different than a BSN.

I thought that was what a BSN was...Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

I have looked at both Universities that had a College of Nursing and, and a regular college that just had a nursing department, and all of them called the degree a BSN. I have actually never seen it called anything else.

However, all of the BSN programs that I have seen have BOTH the core general education requirements of the university (no matter what your major) and then had departmental requirements that were specific to the BSN...and those courses didn't have anything to do with Nursing at all.

I agree w/the previous poster. What we nurses refer to as a BSN is a bachelor of science degree in nursing, whether it is earned at a college of nursing within a university, or a college which has a department of nursing.

Am I missing something that is the source of your frustration?

Generically speaking, an undergraduate degree is either a BS or a BA, no matter what field of study. Many fields use another notation within their own industries, i.e., we nurses refer to a BSN, those with business degrees refer to their BSBA (bachelor of science in business administration), etc. ... but this designation is meaningful only to others in the same field. Some specific majors may require a few more credits, some a few less, but all are generically 4-year undergraduate degrees.

LaborNurse, you are correct. The only reason that I found out about this is because the school I attended only recently got accredited as a "school of nursing" within the college. My professor told us that we are the first class to graduate with BSN, and that all other graduates of the program prior, have BS degrees. I don't think most people know about this distinction though because most of the grads prior to our class, have BSN on their badges for work.

All in all, I do believe that our class had the same curriculum as the previous grads did (within a several year period).

BSN is supposed to be if you are a graduate of a School of Nursing within a college/university while BS is if you graduate from a Bachelor's program in Nursing. Kind of silly because I am pretty sure that they have similar, if not, identical curriculum's. It is all whether or not the school you attended is accredited to be a "School of Nursing" or not.

i'm not going to argue whether rn's should be diploma, 2 year, or 4 year, but what i have a complaint about is that for those of us with a bs with a major in nursing get left out of the loop. many times we are just given the title bsn because we have the 4 year degree, but in fact, these two are slightly different.

i have seen my name with someone else adding the title bsn and it really aggravates me! :angryfire

anyhow...my understanding of the difference is that the bs with a major in nursing is a 4 year degree awarded by the university/college, not a college within the university system, and therefore requires a few more credits for graduation. the bsn is awarded to students who attended a college of nursing school within a university. in other words, its a separate division within the school that has different graduation requirements, albeit not much different than other divisions within the university but different none the less.

if so, that's just basically saying a diploma nurse in the accelerated program is following starting with rn, progressing to bs (bachelor) then to ms (masters). it is assumed that because it's on the nursing page or within the department of nursing it will result in an bsn, msn. bs and ms are just general labels that identify the degree level.

Julia, they really are different. The nursing courses are similar, but those who attend the BS program have more pre req's to do in history, humanities, literature, etc than the BSN programs do. Not by much, and I'm not saying one is better than the other. I am just saying there is a difference and I want people to realize that just because I have a four year degree to not assume its a BSN.

Many have 4 year degrees besides and other than BSN. In addition, I know of many 2nd or 3rd degree RNs who have ADN plus BA pr degrees in related fields like biology, chemistry or psychology/social work, yet "they" just tear them down as "only AD nurses". I wish we could just respect everyone's educational accomplishments period.

I agree w/the previous poster. What we nurses refer to as a BSN is a bachelor of science degree in nursing, whether it is earned at a college of nursing within a university, or a college which has a department of nursing.

Am I missing something that is the source of your frustration?

Generically speaking, an undergraduate degree is either a BS or a BA, no matter what field of study. Many fields use another notation within their own industries, i.e., we nurses refer to a BSN, those with business degrees refer to their BSBA (bachelor of science in business administration), etc. ... but this designation is meaningful only to others in the same field. Some specific majors may require a few more credits, some a few less, but all are generically 4-year undergraduate degrees.

I wish we could just respect everyone's educational accomplishments period.

I agree. I wasn't implying otherwise.

And here is the program I graduated from giving me the BS degree with a major in nursing. If you go to UMass Lowell's website you will see that a BSN is not offered. The link below is the curriculum for the RN to BS program which I was in. The courses listed were in addition to anything we transferred in, or we could CLEP exam out of some of them.

Anyhow...my understanding of the difference is that the BS with a major in nursing is a 4 year degree awarded by the university/college, not a college within the university system, and therefore requires a few more credits for graduation. The BSN is awarded to students who attended a College of Nursing school within a university. In other words, its a separate division within the school that has different graduation requirements, albeit not much different than other divisions within the university but different none the less.

Am I alone on this one?

*** Just to throw this in the mix....... I work with several nurses who have RN, BAN on their badges for Bachelor of Arts in Nursing. Some schools grant the BAN instead of BSN.